Chick lit: entertainment? art? trash? a synthesis of feminist and
post-feminist thought? Many points of view were represented by members
of a panel on chick lit held at Women & Children First, Chicago,
Ill., and covered by the
Columbia Chronicle.
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Yesterday's
New York Times Book Review holiday books issue
encompassed the following eclectic range of categories: houses and
gardens, photography, exploration, travel, comics history, cooking,
Japanese art, music and Paris. The issue also has the 100 Notable Books of the Year.
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Coincidence? Both the
Wall Street Journal and
New York Times today had major stories on children's books. The
Journal examines the "Christmas break" caught by Mackinac Island Press, Traverse City, Mich., whose
Has Anyone Seen Christmas?
was bought by Barnes & Noble for its "Christmas table." The company
liked the tale, approved of the track record of author-publisher Anne
Margaret Lewis and her husband-associate publisher, Brian Lewis, and
needed a title like it to help "fill a need." The book now has 90,000
copies in print.
The
Times features the
Norton Anthology of Children's Literature,
intended for scholars, and the Connections column celebrates the
multiple meanings children's texts can have when read aloud and with
children.
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Ed Kluska plans to close his 33-year-old Kluska's New World Bookshop, Clifton, Ohio, according to the
Cincinnati Enquirer. He will continue to operate an astrology consulting business.
Kluska blamed the closing on competition from online retailers, chain
stores and grocery stores such as Kroger, which now sell New Age books.
"One Kroger has more space devoted to books than our entire store,"
Kluska told the paper.
He also said the store's changing neighborhood had hurt business. As hardware
stores, shoe and variety stores have been replaced by restaurants and gift
shops, there has been less traffic during the day and more in the evening
and on weekends.
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The
Lincoln Journal Star
tells the heartwarming story of A Novel Idea Bookstores, a rare and
used bookstore in Lincoln, Neb., whose basement was flooded by a burst
pipe. Customers, friends and neighboring businesspeople helped clear
out books before the waters reached them, and the store lost only 3,000
books--mostly on physics, anthropology, quilting and history. Owner
Cinnamon Dokken praised the helpers, saying, "Something that was
looking like a tragedy turned into something that had a real feeling of
blessing." Yesterday the store turned a planned open house into a
celebration.
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The op-ed page of yesterday's
New York Times featured a hilarious contribution by Karen Karbo, author of
Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, about how HarperCollins might make
Goodnight Moon
even more PC--above and beyond the decision to omit the cigarette held
for years by illustrator Clement Hurd (as mentioned several times in
Shelf Awareness last month). Among Karbo's recommendations:
"A fire blazing in the fireplace while Bunny sleeps? Suggested change:
Get rid of it. At the very least, digitally add a fire extinguisher to
the wall. And hello?
Where are the smoke detectors?
"Who exactly
is [the rabbit knitting in the rocking chair]?
Bunny says, 'A quiet old lady whispering hush?' But what do we know of
her really? Suggested change: Digitally alter quiet old lady's apron
with a message emblazoned across the front that says she was hired from
a reputable agency, is a citizen and has passed a criminal background
check."
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North of the border, the
Globe and Mail
explores why "international demand for English-language literary
fiction has gone seriously south." Among the problems both in Canada
and elsewhere: high prices, competition for a shrinking amount of
leisure time, underediting and overpublishing, a post-September 11 desire for
nonfiction and "explanations"; and publishers leery about the sales
records of previous books by authors.
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With the
Shepherd Express, the Milwaukee weekly, Harry W.
Schwartz Bookshops has begun an annual short story contest. The first
place winner receives a $200 Schwartz gift certificate and publication
in
Shepherd Express. Second and third place prizes are $100 and $50, respectively, and publication on the
Shepherd Express Web site.
All winners will be invited to read at the store.
